


Slipping Through My Fingers All The Time

by asimplemind (softly_speaking_valkyrie)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora Whump, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bathing/Washing, Bittersweet, Caretaking, Comfort, Established Adora/Glimmer, Established Relationship, F/F, Hair Washing, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Love, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Nudity, Romance, Sleepy Cuddles, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:55:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29872224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softly_speaking_valkyrie/pseuds/asimplemind
Summary: Life in Bright Moon is not really what Adora thought it would be after the war. Heralded as a saint and a celebrity, she and her lover must turn to now establishing a stable realm and to unify the regions of Eternia in a hope for future prosperity, but Adora just wants to escape the routine of administration. All she wants is Glimmer...
Relationships: Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Slipping Through My Fingers All The Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Say_Anything](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Say_Anything/gifts).



> I highly, highly advise listening to 'Slipping Through My Fingers' and 'Our Last Summer' both by ABBA while reading this fic, as I used them to write it and I feel the tone and feeling of the fic would be a little incomplete without them. Enjoy <3

Adora shrugged off the shoulders of her dress like they were another layer of skin she didn’t want any longer, nearly desperate to shake off the weight she had burdened on each of them for most of the day. It wasn’t much compared to the responsibility her partner bore, but just existing in the bubble the citizens of New Bright Moon had created around her, the level of celebrity they had all labelled her with was now something almost atrocious. She snatched off the infernal circlet from around her forehead and purposefully scuffed up her dirty blonde hair.

Today, for some reason, it all felt too much for the still young and former warrior. All she craved was a rest, a reprieve, something to tide her over until the new state of the realm was stable, and she wasn’t needed at all any further.

A flash, a gleam in the background and some noise that reminded her of the sprinkling of glitter and suddenly soft palms made their way up and down the age old scars on Adora’s back. Those fingers felt like serpents, but touched her so delicately she felt safe enough to bask in the new presence around her back. Those same soft and beautiful hands moved around her subtle midriff. The blonde’s back ached a little, even as she laxed into the warm embrace of her shorter partner.

_Glimmer..._

“Rough day, huh?” The gorgeous monarch whispered from behind her taller girlfriend, nuzzling her cheeks into the cut of Adora’s dress draping down her back still. It was still perplexing why the tailors dressed her backless gowns given those claw marks embedded into her muscles and flesh. 

“You too? I haven’t seen you since this mornin’, Glim...” Adora sighed, turning in her partner closed embrace and staggering backward on the balls of her exhausted heels. Even for her gorgeous girlfriend like this, the energy simply would not come to the otherwise rugged blonde.

Glimmer dismayed at the lack of Adora’s back to fawn over, but found her hands resting into the natural space of the small of the warriors back. She could feel the knots in her spinal column no doubt travelling all the way up. But then her sparkly vision found Adora’s eyes and she grinned again. There weren’t enough hours in the day to want to feel close to the taller woman, and Glimmer could teleport. With her gentle and miniscule wings she slowly levitated somewhat off of the floor just to reach Adora’s height and leaned in, stealing a well-earned kiss from the blonde, wanting to savour it like the scent of a fresh bloom. Nothing felt like Adora’s kiss.

Another flash and the sound of glitter windswept in an undercurrent and Glimmer was around Adora’s flank again, pulling and guiding her gently to the bed, sensing her levels of exhaustion.

“Bunch of royal meetings with everyone from here to the other side of Etheria; nothing really new but I still gotta do it, y’know?” Glimmer absent-mindedly recited, gently setting her love down onto the bed.

Near instantly, Adora felt her back give way above her flank and fell backward, hitting the softness of the bed sheets and fluffy pillows like a big and dumb blonde rock. “I wish it was the summer again, Glim.”

“I know...” The pink-haired teleporter sighed just like her partner, sinking down and laying opposite to Adora, curved enough and on her side. “It was so warm.”

“Down by the river – you, me, Bow, Scorpia and Perfuma...” Adora reminisced, recalling nearly every detail in and lucid and vivid trance, remembering her lover on her back, holding on by her shoulders. “I gave you piggybacks all the way down the bank, remember?” She asked further, sleepily reaching for the Queen’s hand for her own. “Bow nearly tripped on a piece of heavy driftwood.”

They both gently burst into a short giggle fit. “He said he couldn’t even see it!”

“...We made that huge bonfire...”

“We both went skinny-dipping while all the others were finding more wood...”

Adora blushed, remembering it so vividly – Glimmer was splashing all around, jumping in the shallows of the wide and rushing river just to enjoy the adrenaline of making memories together. She’d leapt into Adora’s hands in a flurry of flashy teleports, creating a vast and sparkling glitter display. Even in the low light, the incredible sparkles of her undercut shone as bright as stars reflected and refracted by the current of the river. Adora had held her firmly in an embrace, both of them naked and surrounded by the coolness of the water against their baked skin. Even in the night it was perfectly warm for each of them.

_It was the first time you saw me naked... And the first time I saw you..._ “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that,” Adora hazily whispered.

They each turned onto their sides, still fawning for the other’s fingertips, not wanting to let go as the sun began to say its last goodbyes beyond the distant horizon. Looking into Glimmer’s gorgeous magenta eyes, Adora could tell she wasn’t going to forget it either. In that moment, Adora knew she needed to kiss her again, longer and deeper than before as their heads swirled in blissful nostalgia of the last summer, feeling so far away but still perfectly captured. If that was where they had been already since saving the world, where further could they be going? Adora felt her body twitch as Glimmer leaned up a little, finding her lips and claiming them for her own. She tasted so sweet, something like parfait, spurring the rugged blonde to smile against her lips, almost to the point of laughing.

Why did it feel so hurtfully bittersweet if she was this happy just to be kissing her beautiful girlfriend? They each thought the same. Given that they hadn’t seen each other for the whole day (and more and more days were looking the same as this), it almost felt like they were losing time.

Memories were already becoming more satisfactory than their day-to-day, the business of administration looking so unflattering on both of them. They were still young, still with everything ahead of them and yet it felt like they were being so blatantly robbed. Was this to be it until they were too old to savour their energy? Adora already felt sapped of hers, her feet and back wincing with each movement. Still, Glimmer’s kiss felt like heaven.

If Adora wanted to capture a moment, it would be one like this, her mind so close to Glimmer’s. The latter’s fingertips coming to Adora’s cheek sent her moonward, falling like a serene meteor with a tail of bright pink flame. She crashed hard for Glimmer, her thoughts totally submerged just in being her. A day was relatively nothing, but Adora counted the hours enough to miss her. Another summer needed to come, to drag them both from Bright Moon.

Adora again winced, her own fingers and palm coming to hold Glimmer’s hand gently caressing her soft and muted jawline. She just craved to hold her hand.

“Hey...” Glimmer cooed when a tear did arrive past the threshold of her lover’s eye. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong? It’s okay, Adora.”

“I guess... I’m just really exhausted over here,” she sniggered, trying to obfuscate her fatigued emotive compromise. Despite not being a warrior, not even being She-Ra much anymore, she still fought to hide her vulnerable side from her beloved. It was a tactic doomed to failure with Glimmer.

She found all the cracks and patched them up to the best of her ability. “It’s okay, hon.”

“I love you, Glimmer.”

“And I love you,” the monarch chirped, another kiss to each cheek gently and show, trying to keep that energy muted and serene. “I love you too, baby. And I have an idea that I think s’gonna help.” She smiled as she said it, lifting herself up. “C’mon,” she flashed, teleporting again and gently pulling the blonde up from the bed. “Let’s take a bath together, it’ll help.”

There was a snap in Adora’s mind, mirrored as she looked into Glimmer’s expression again as her hair flayed around her, increasingly scruffy and all over the place over her scalp and shoulders. A bath, and with her partner as well, sounded like a small heaven. But she simply had no energy left except to get there. “Glim, can you..?”

“Anything.”

It felt embarrassing, at least a little, or vulnerable at least. “Will you help me wash?” Adora nearly hated to ask, looking at her still boyish hands almost near her sides. Glimmer stepped back to her and took them into her own, looking up with that cute and soft beam.

“Of course I can. I’m here for you, Adora.”

“I love you so much, Glimmer...” Adora whispered; her forehead delicately placed against her girlfriend’s.

* * *

“You sure about this?”

Glimmer cooed, keeping her legs around Adora’s waistline and almost wearing her like she was a backpack however naked and completely covered in hot water and various flower petals. She’d made the whole ensemble, with a couple of candles around the rim of the tub and the lights turned down exceptionally low. A few magenta lanterns in the wall of the private bathroom kept them from bordering into a more exposed darkness, and in combination with the pink, purple and red candles scattered around, bathed them in a warm and gentle like mirroring Glimmer’s hair. Adora’s was already soaked, the smaller and plumper monarch running her fingers through the knotty and soaked strands that all clung together for the moisture.

“It’s not like we haven’t done this before, babe,” Glimmer chirped again, sitting up among their little lake and wrapping her arms around her exhausted muse. “Lay back and let me hold you.”

“Last time I swear you were lying on top of me... I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, Glimmer.”

It was the same Adora she’d fallen completely in love with during that one time at Auntie Casta’s – they were in a bath house then too, albeit with Bow on the other side of the springs. Adora had rested against the edge of the wading pool and Glimmer and been helpless but to rest against her bound chest. She pulled Adora back, brushing her wet hair over her right shoulder and kissing the rear of her neck right at the tip of her spine.

“No more talking, Adora – Glimmer says relax now, okay?”

“Okay...” Adora meekly wined as she lay back and stretched out in the expansive tub. Glimmer’s legs easily surrounded her, her plump and gorgeous thighs like smaller but still incredibly soft pillows around the crest of the blonde’s back. “You’re so soft...”

“I try,” Glimmer smiled, leaning over herself and kissing her lover tenderly on her crown, continuing to embrace her close and never let go. “It’s nice to finally have you like this again...”

“You hardly ever have me like this though,” the taller girlfriend beamed with her eyes closed, still basking in the softness of her lover surrounding her. “I’m always the only on top or the one with you laying on me like this... Remember the hot spring?”

Glimmer jerked a little, nearly tutting as she stretched out with her arms and pulled them back, massaging at Adora’s naked and longer form. Her fingertips found the blonde’s lower abdomen and savoured the contours from her navel all the way up to her lean and athletic bosom, careful not to invade her space and merely to worship her form. Another kiss at her crown cemented the Queen’s innocent and wholesome intentions, enough for Adora to coo and tenderly moan at the adoration of her shape, her fingers wrapping around Glimmer’s bicep and kissing her wet flesh.

“I wouldn’t say you’re _always_ on top, Adora...”

Like the repeated peck to the blonde’s crown where her hairlines parted, Adora cooed again and reached for Glimmer’s arm, kissing what she could. The fuller girl shuffled among the tiny currents and swerved, coming around her lover’s side – an added effect came to Adora’s cheek again in the form of Glimmer’s palm, reaching down to her cheek as they both smiled.

“More often than not though, right?” The blonde beamed a little.

“We can change that – I mean, I know I’d like to take charge of you some time.”

Their eyes both caught the glistening wisps of the candlelight refracted through the subtle movements of the bathwater. Cascades of deep rouge and indigo petals wash against Adora’s form, catching onto her wet shape and dotting her body. Glimmer brushed her hair to the side again and held her closer still. They both found comfort in just holding each other this close, so vulnerable. The blonde looked down, blushing a little as she let this side her come out in a more profound way. Living like this, and at Bright Moon; it was all something Adora never thought she’d get to have, and here was Glimmer, so eager to share it with her.

_Never let me leave her like this..._

“Pass me the sponge, babe, and relax, okay?” Glimmer’s voice was like a lullaby, slowly drawing Adora into a gentle sleep as she cuddled her. She obliged, the only movement Glimmer asked of her further while she reached for the oil soak and ran it through her hands with a dab into the bathwater. “Want me to wash your hair, too?”

“Oh... _Gods_ , could you? Sorry...”

“Don’t be,” Glimmer whispered, massaging the shampoo through her palms and beginning to run her fingers through the streaks of soaking blonde hair. Suds formed in moments, the fresh fragrance of the palace gardens sinking into Adora’s hair and making it silky smooth again. “I love this...”

“You love washing me because I’m too exhausted to do it myself?” Adora countered, perplexed at it all, but infatuated with how Glimmer’s hands and fingers seamlessly moved through her hair, massaging her scalp and sending her moonward all over again. The feeling of her hair slipping through the smaller sapphic’s fingers made her blush all over again.

“What’s so wrong with that? I love taking care of you if I can, Adora,” the flanking girlfriend chirped again, still washing the other’s hair before leaning to the side and pecking her cheek quickly. “I’d love it a lot more if you’d give up and take it – dummy.” She snuck in further, nuzzling their noses together. With a rinse over her scalp, Glimmer guiding Adora’s movements and directing her with what little she wanted to do, the smaller woman moved onto her lover’s body, careful of the time and observant of how tired she could sense Adora was. She didn’t delay but didn’t rock her lover’s position, careful to keep her comfortable at all times.

And occasionally Glimmer would sneak a kiss – the neck, the crown, the cheek, even the lips or the soft and mellow curves of her collarbone. Every touch of her lips to Adora’s body was a blessing, a little greedy of her lover, but Glimmer worshipped her to no end, thankful for this.

“Come on, babe,” she finally and softly declared when Adora was finally washed and clean. “You’re almost falling asleep on me here. Let’s get you dressed for bed, right?”

Adora didn’t really reply, still away in some form of dream where she got to indulgently have her beloved look after her following an exhausting day of tedious busywork she almost definitely wanted to shirk. Of course, Adora had help, all of Bright Moon was working still to fully stabilise and unite the whole of Etheria – but the blonde just wanted a quiet future. This was the kind of life she wanted, away from royalty and She-Ra, away from all memory of the Horde or any further fighting. Madam Razz seemed to be living a dream outside of the palace, all around the Whispering Woods.

“Arms up,” Glimmer told her after they were both dry in a moment. She even dressed her before they sank back onto the bed, drawing the bed sheets over each other.

“Glimmer...”

“Adora?”

The taller girlfriend tossed about the sheets for a moment, pulling them far back and then up as she buried herself in them to her waist. Glimmer slouched against the array of fresh pillows, dressed in slacks of a rough tunic and some short shorts that let her full and gorgeous thighs breathe, her darker tone of skin so beautiful as it caught the gentleness of the magenta and deep indigo surrounding lamplights. Adora knew she didn’t want them off, she wanted to keep close to her Glimmer and cuddle her in a mellow nightlight, keeping them softly awake for a time to continue talking. The blonde warrior knew she was tired, still fatigued to no end after being pulled and dragged around the palace as a sort of icon or a saint for what she had done for them all. It was nauseating now, considering what she wanted. She tossed about a little more, roughing up her hair into a straw-like mess of a similar colour to what Swift Wind slept in. Glimmer silently called for her to come closer and Adora came, needing to hold her close and steal away another moment for a later memory. The relaxed experience of being bathed by her was extraordinary, but Adora knew she wanted just a little bit more.

_More time, more time with her, holding her close. I love you so much, Glimmer._

“Are you okay?” The slightly darker girlfriend asked, reaching as Adora arrived between her fuller thighs, laying on her front on a mess of the covers under her.

Adora reached around her lover, holding her up her back and holding on softly but ready to hold tight at a moment’s notice. Glimmer gently beamed again, seeing her still scruffy-looking princess, rough around the edges no matter how much Bright Moon as a whole had attempted to soften them in the year since they’d settled after the conflict. Soft edges almost didn’t suit Adora, especially as Glimmer saw something old in those deep oceanic eyes.

She cupped the blonde’s face again, and remembered beyond their time in Castaspella’s spa and spring at the mountaintop. No, Glimmer remembered the village, the forest, the first time they’d met as Adora peered back into her own eyes.

“Still my rebel, like you were when I stole you from the Horde...”

“You stole me, huh?”

“I like to think so – and I kept you all this time. Never gonna let you leave; sorry, but you’re in this for life, Adora.”

She chuckled at that, relaxing into a closer embrace. “You’ve been keeping me safe all this time...”

“Yup. Safe is where I’m gonna keep you, dummy.” They both chuckled together, and melted into another kiss as Glimmer’s hair began to sparkle without even trying.


End file.
